This is a fan’s personal view of AFC Bournemouth from the outside looking in. It reports on the daily official activities reported by the club and comments made by individual fans on social media and fanbase websites. Life as an AFCB fan is never dull. As a life-long supporter of the Cherries, it is the friendliness of the staff, fans and my enthusiasm for the club that inspired me to write this blog.

Welcome

Sunday, 15 September 2019

There is no doubt that Aaron Ramsdale is a confident fellow. He strides out to his goal feeling that he is the best player to keep the opposition out and he has made some amazing saves already for the Cherries, but the clean sheet has eluded him so far. What would it do for him to get that clean sheet though against Everton?

Aaron will hope it is fifth time lucky for a clean sheet.

In a week that we have sen Mark Travers win his first senior cap for the Republic of Ireland squad the focus on AFCB's keepers is as high as ever. The competition for top spot hasn't slowed, despite the departure of Asmir Begovic. At the moment it is Mark Travers that has played in the Carabao cup as the Cherries current number two, but Artur Boruc will still want games and may get the FA Cup games. I don't think it is incorrect to say that any of the three keepers could make a Premier League appearance at some stage this season.

Aaron Ramsdale hasn't been marked out for any glaring mistakes that have led to goals, but Eddie will know that the Cherries are conceding two goals a game on average and he has to find ways to get that down. He may feel that the team as a whole has to defend better and a change in keeper just isn't beneficial, unless Aaron's confidence slips. I don't think the fans want to see a keeper change yet, but Aaron needs to get a clean sheet as soon as possible, because he hasn't done it yet and we know that Artur Boruc is capable of 10 clean sheets in a season.

If Ramsdale can get that clean sheet against Everton, then I expect he will go from strength to strength. It seems hard that Travers hasn't been given more of a go following his Tottenham clean sheet, but Eddie Howe might have wanted to protect him after the five goals that went in against him at Crystal Palace in the final game last season. For now the three keepers don't have much between them in my opinion and yet all of them will want to see AFCB start to get some clean sheets as soon as possible. Everton are a team that struggle away from home, so we could just see Ramsdale get his wish and that could send his confidence soaring even higher to help AFCB start getting back up this league.Enjoy the game today! UTCIAD!PremierTalk -Canaries bring Premier League to life

Saturday, 14 September 2019

Mark Lawrenson doesn't often like to give AFCB a winning prediction, but I see he can't help give the Everton fans a kick in the teeth as a former Liverpool player - you have to laugh! Despite Bournemouth's soft-centre, he has gone for a Cherries 2-1 victory over the Toffees on Sunday, and while Lawro likes to hammer AFCB for their defensive frailties, he might just be right that there will be a few goals in this game. I'll take his prediction anyway, because he won't expect AFCB to win many times this season.

The Cherries have had some great battles with Everton at Dean Court.

Everton have not found it easy to play away from home and they tend to concede on the road, while Bournemouth have to look back to their 1-0 win against Tottenham last May for their last clean sheet. It's hard to see why Everton don't play as well away from home. Certainly Pickford has not looked the most accomplished keeper in the division and like Ramsdale he is prone to make the odd mistake when trying to play out for the back, so there is a good chance that one of the keepers could give away a goal in this game.

Penalties also come along fairly frequently in Bournemouth matches and at the moment Josh King has put away the only penalty that AFCB have had against Aston Villa. Josh has not scored in open play and would probably be more than happy to get another opportunity from 12 yards.Scoring goals is not normally a big problem for AFCB, but with five goals from their four games, they are not quite firing on all cylinders yet. So perhaps Lawro is being a bit ambitious in predicting a couple of goals for the Cherries. He may be thinking more of Everton's defence which has seen six goals conceded in the new season. Whether you think Lawro is going to be right or not, send in your score predictions for AFCB v Everton to Cherry Chimes on Twitter. We will pick a winner from the correct entries to win a Cherry Chimes T-Shirt.

Look out for my answers to Royal Blue Mersey in a preview to the AFCB v Everton match

Friday, 13 September 2019

Everton might be favourites to beat Bournemouth but they are not going to be that confident coming to Dean Court, having only one away on the League Cup so far this season. In fact Everton have not scored in their two Premier League matches at Crystal Palace and Aston Villa.

AFCB need Everton to continue their poor away form.

The Toffees' strike rate is averaging one goal a match and three of their four league goals came in their last home match against Wolves. Richarlison is their top scorer on two and new signing Iwobi from Arsenal has a goal, along with Bernard. Richarlison will try and forget about the last time he was at Dean Court and was sent off when he had been in hot form. AFCB know he has a short fuse and may well try and rattle him again.

Michael Kean has had a busy week and made a bit of a clanger against Kosovo when playing for England, so hopefully Bournemouth's attackers will press him when he is in possession. But he will be a threat at corners as we saw in mid-week. Everton's big signing over the summer was Fabien Delph who has fallen out of favour with Southgate's selection for England. Delph may be finding that games are not so easy to win being without his ex-Man City team-mates.

The player that still unlocks doors for Everton though is Gylfi Sigurdsson. He has had a quiet first few games this season, but has that quality from dead ball situations to hurt any team in the Premier League. So Everton have their star players and Bournemouth will really need to show a lot more control and organisation than they did up at Leicester City a couple of weeks ago, but home advantage could mean a lot in this game. Bournemouth really need the points if they are not to find themselves in the bottom three come next weekend!Everton FormDWLWAFCB Home FormDWLL

Thursday, 12 September 2019

While Andrew Surman is not seen as a match winner these days, he still has plenty to offer and could be part of the solution that Eddie Howe calls upon to try and get a result against Everton. This week we have seen that Lewis Cook is taking part in training and getting close to match fitness, but the bench is probably the closest he can get to playing at the weekend.

Andrew Surman still has some big games left in him and Sunday could be one of them.

That puts the focus on Philip Billing and Jefferson Lerma. Are they strong enough to stop Everton in their tracks? I think Billing is still finding his feet in this team and is a bit of a follower rather than a leader at the moment. Billing and Lerma have only won the one game at Aston Villa, and Surman played in the second 45 minutes of that game when Billing lost his control and almost got sent off.

What we know about Surman is that he has a tremendous amount of experience. He will do a job if Eddie Howe asks him to play a role that keeps AFCB ticking and hinders Everton. Bournemouth's pass completions are not particularly high (15th highest at the moment) and Surman has the ability to move the ball confidently in possession, even if it is renowned for being sideways in the main.

Bournemouth have not had a clean sheet yet and have not won at home, so they need to re-establish themselves against Everton, and get a result that would push them back into the higher placings. If that means Howe needs to look at stopping teams and being a bit more cautious now, rather than being open and too attack-minded then buckle yourself in for a tense game at the weekend. Three central midfielders, could be Howe's thinking against a team that is already three points better off than the Cherries. The friendly against QPR in mid-week would also suggest that Howe is contemplating this as he played Billing, Surman and Lewis Cook in that match.

Possible AFCB line-up

AFCB Subs: Boruc, Rico, Stacey, Kilkenny, L Cook, Ibe, Solanke

In other news, Cherry Chimes is going to be fed on to a website called Football-addict for French readers. Check out the site to see all its Premier League news and more.

Wednesday, 11 September 2019

Looking back at the Leicester City game had quite a few of us holding our head in our hands at the shambles that continued to play out at the back. If the first goal was an amazing finish from Vardy, it was just as much a positioning tragedy for Chris Mepham and Steve Cook. The second goal saw Vardy embarrass Steve Cook again before driving the ball across the six yard box for a simple tap in and the ping-pong failure to clear by Mepham for the third goal had everyone ready to call it a day.

Simpson and Aké would be my pick for AFCB's central defenders.

But Eddie Howe hasn't got that luxury. He has to find a way to make Bournemouth defend better against Everton. What hasn't helped is hearing that Chris Mepham has picked up an injury when playing for Wales. A straight replacement is Jack Simpson if Howe wants to continue his three at the back experiment, but let's face it - Bournemouth's players look ill at ease when they are not playing 4-4-1-1.

But for Howe to select Diego Rico and Jack Stacey to start is tantamount to Brexit getting through the Commons! I might be wrong and Eddie may decide to go that way, but if these players were not good enough in the opening four fixtures with two newly promoted sides, it does make me wonder how Everton's players will feel, if they see them starting - lots of hand rubbing I expect!

That makes me think that Howe has to find a way of getting three centre-back working and Jack Simpson is probably one of the best out and out defenders he has, so it perhaps makes sense to play him, at least until Lloyd Kelly and Adam Smith can play again. I am assuming Smith is not going to be ready for the Everton game, looking at the way he pulled up in the Leicester match. Meanwhile, Simon Francis doesn't seem to be anywhere near training with the squad yet. Defensive options are limited and with Aké away on international duty it doesn't give him long to get a new back three working well, but he seems reluctant to drop Steve Cook, which means the only way Simpson might play is if Howe does put three centre-back on the pitch. Mepham deserves to be dropped after his performance at Leicester, whether he regains fitness in time or not for the Everton match.

Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Callum Wilson will be in Gareth Southgate's squad tonight but it is another matter whether he can add to his number of England starts. At the weekend he sat through the 90 minutes against Bulgaria on the bench, while Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling took the plaudits for a stunning England show of forward power, which Southgate described as World class.

Callum hopes to get off the sidelines for England.

So where does that leave Callum Wilson? He has done nothing wrong and everything right in the appearances he has played for England. He does not play for a big club and has perhaps scored as many goals as he would have liked since the start of the season, but his desire to play for his country is clearly important for him. How many opportunities he'll get is something he might not be able to control.

While Southgate could choose to rest players that have put England on the brink of qualification for the European Championships, it is hard to see Southgate taking his foot off the gas now and giving the likes of Wilson and former AFC Bournemouth defender, Tyrone Mings a start. Perhaps if England are 5-0 up by half-time against Kossovo he could give some players an outing. But Kossovo are by no means push overs and are lying second in the group on eight points, one behind England have played one more game.

As well as form, star players and the group situation being against the inclusion of Wilson, the Bournemouth forward may be thinking that he really needs to get some minutes, because of the form of others like James Maddison, Jadon Sancho, Callum-Hudson Odoi and Tammy Abraham, who are all ready to stake places as attacking players. Of course, Wilson would like to thought of Southgate's first substitute if he can't start, but even that is by no means a certainty with such a crop of young talent coming through. Callum may just have to start banging in a lot more goals for Bournemouth before he pushes himself up the rankings in Gareth Southgate's mind.

Monday, 9 September 2019

The form of Ryan Fraser was always going to come under maximum scrutiny after this summer and his links with Arsenal. On the performances the winger has had in the first four league matches, his place in the team could well come under threat, if one or two players can get back to full fitness soon.

Fraser is struggling for form.

Ryan has been a great servant for AFCB. His wish not to sign a new contract and to play out his story with the media over the summer with the possibility of a big move has perhaps back fired on the Wee-man. He had an exceptional season in 2018-19 and perhaps he felt that by progressing each season, it would not be hard to turn on the style in this new season, if he remained at AFCB. But players do get affected by paper talk and now he has to get back to the bread and butter of his game to try and give himself a chance of having a move.

In hindsight, he may find he is better to sign a new contract with AFCB come next January when speculation starts to mount again about his future. On his current form you can't see any of the top six clubs looking twice at him, even if he were to be available on a free transfer. It may be that Fraser feels he just needs a change of scenery and a different voice to take his game on further, which he could well benefit from. But at the moment he is still at AFCB and he hasn't sparkled in the four Premier League games he has had.

To be fair there are several players who we can say have not performed. But Ryan is a 100 per cent trier and he will be most distraught that he hasn't played particularly well this season. All these unsettling things will be making to hard for the team as a whole to do well, so we may well see that Arnaut Danjuma is one player that Eddie Howe is most keen to see back on the pitch, as Howe can surely see that Wee-man is still not quite on his game yet.

Sunday, 8 September 2019

Eddie Howe now has a big problem on the left side of defence. With Charlie Daniels out for the season he is having to reconstruct his defence again, and in the match against Leicester City it was Nathan Aké that filled the vacant role at left-back. It's likely that Nathan will have this job for sometime with Adam Smith and Lloyd Kelly also out of the picture.

Charlie Daniels will have to sit out another year at AFCB

Charlie Daniels is one of the senior players and a great influence on other team members. He would have made up for one or two other players like Simon Francis not being around on the pitch, but Steve Cook is the man who will have to take most responsibility for the Cherries' performances now. It adds extra pressure on players who have been in the team longer like Callum Wilson and Josh King, who will know the team need his goals more than ever.

What the team need to do is to play for Charlie. If they have that common goal that Charlie didn't deserve such bad luck, then they have to try and use that to improve performances. The numbers are not good for the Cherries at the moment. They need competition for positions and currently that is being squandered with the quickly rising injury list.

Eddie Howe has Diego Rico and Jack Stacey as cover players who are specialists and left-back and right-back players, but of he does not play them then what does this say about AFCB's recruitment? The team is surely better to play those players that train specially to play in these positions. It underlines the feeling that AFCB have not done enough yet to replace some of the players that won them promotion to the Premier League four years ago.

Saturday, 7 September 2019

Searching for ways to get better results takes the focus to one or two players that Eddie Howe will hope he can get back soon in my opinion. The need to see Lewis Cook and perhaps Junior Stanislas putting on their shirts again is something that Bournemouth fans might not have felt was that pressing at the start of August, but the team needs a bit of quality and new energy and these two players just might provide some of that.

Has positivity slipped since the opening game?

Eddie Howe is always cautious on saying when he expects players to come back, but there is little time to waste in getting back players who might be able to start turning results around. Lewis Cook has been out for an awful long time, but this could be his biggest season yet for AFCB and if he can get games next to Lerma it could add the solidity that the team has been searching for.

That might be harsh on Billing, but I don't see him making Bournemouth a better team at the moment than when Lewis Cook is available or Dan Gosling for that matter. Billing is chasing players and running hard, but he's not dictating and Bournemouth need players to grab hold of games if they are in the middle.

I'd also like to see Junior Stanislas get back soon. He may not be better than Harry Wilson or Arnaut Danjuma, but he will add competition and Bournemouth need more players vying for positions at the moment. Jordan Ibe is really Howe's only plan B when things don't work for Ryan Fraser of Harry Wilson and it's not changed games when Ibe has come on. Gavin Kilkenny it would appear is not deemed ready yet for the Premier League, which shows that there is a lack of experience available to Eddie Howe.If Howe can get a couple of players back though by the end of the international break, and I include Simon Francis in that, then the mood in the camp might well pick up as might the results. In other news, Harry Wilson played 63 minutes in Wales 2-1 over Azerbaijan with Chris Mepham lasting the 90 minutes, and Ryan Fraser played the full 90 minutes against Russia in Scotalnd's 1-2 defeat.

Friday, 6 September 2019

The latest injury to halt Bournemouth in their tracks is the injury to Adam Smith. While it is bad for a team to lose any player for a few weeks, it is particularly bad news that Adam Smith is the unlucky one because he is one of those players that can cover in so many positions.Adam Smith is an energetic and full-hearted player, so it is perhaps no surprise that he does pick-up injuries fairly frequently. He got this one running back and straining to stop a Leicester attack on the left. but a slight over stretch, and he was out of the game in the second half.

Charlie Daniels is one player we won't be seeing again this season.

Meanwhile, the injury to Charlie Daniels we know will keep him out for the whole season as he has a dislocated patella. He did that during the match with Man City. It is particularly devastating for Charlie who missed most of last season with a long-term knee injury.

The holes in the team are really starting to show. Eddie Howe keeps shuffling the pack but as soon as he does another player picks up an injury. Yet, we are only just a month into the new season and teams that get a lot of injuries usually struggle to pick up points. We are starting to see that scenario at Bournemouth. It does seem unfair that wherever Howe looks to strengthen his team he finds that injuries pop up in places where he least needs them. Last season in was in central midfield and now it is in defence where it is worse when players drop out of the team as the whole solidity of the side comes under pressure.

It will put pressure as well on players when they do come back. Lloyd Kelly will have to try and fill Charlie Daniels boots for sure, and if Jack Stacey can't fill in for Adam Smith then Howe will need Simon Francis to comeback into the right side, when Francis has said he wants to play as a centre-back for the last two seasons.If Bournemouth were a blanket it would be looking more like a patchwork quilt at the moment, but the problem is that quilt doesn't cover the pitch very well. There is time at the moment to heel, but AFCB can't afford to fall too far behind before they start solving their injury problems.In other news, Josh King scored a penalty in Norway's 2-0 win over Malta in the European Championship qualifiers.

Thursday, 5 September 2019

The Cherries have to pick themselves up after the Leicester defeat. The game swung away from Bournemouth after an indifferent performance and the table doesn't look quite so clever with one win a draw and two defeats.

Two defeats in four games and the pressure is on.

That sinking feeling is certainly in the belly of Bournemouth fans and it makes the upcoming home games all the more important to win now. In some respects we do usually see AFCB play better when they are in a bit of trouble and the pressure is on, but this start is a long way behind the impressive start of last season. Whether the squad has been strengthened in the right areas is something that we may only get a clear feeling about by next January. Bournemouth have spent money, but the players they have bought in the last year, at the back, have not replaced the established players with the exception that Chris Mepham has had some starts.

You could argue that Billing and Harry Wilson have added something to the team further forward, but results say that there is more that needs to be done in making this a winning team. Playing people in their best position is where Eddie has to start and if the players he has bough at right-back, centre-midfield and up front are not ready yet then we should question the recruitment policy. Most of these players are young but are they ready? They may get better with time, but Bournemouth need to try and stay in the Premier League with them and rebuilding has not been as easy as some might have hoped for.

It is possible that the balance is not quite right yet and while we know AFCB always pick up injuries, this season they really needed a bit of help to bed these new players in. Eddie Howe now has to look for solutions to a growing problem.

Wednesday, 4 September 2019

Fans always want their players just to be so proud of the shirt they wear that they do everything to make blocks and keep balls out of the net. I'm sure AFCB's players are trying their best to do that, but they are making too many mistakes. While there are some last gasp blocks, there are also some slack passes in the box and little energy exerted to get in front of players at times to make it difficult for the opposition. As good as Bournemouth were against Man City, they were out of sorts against Leicester.

AFCB couldn''t stop their first away defeat of the season at Leicester.

You can't win every game and it's hard to go away from home and get points, but this Bournemouth side haven't started this season with not enough grit and determination to get the points they wanted. The matches have come and gone quickly in August and the total of four points from four games is just about enough to keep the club out of the bottom three.

Why have the back four not improved? Okay, Charlie Daniels is injured and Tyrone Mings has been sold, but new signing Jack Stacey and out of favour Diego Rico can't get in the starting eleven, while Lloyd Kelly has been sidelined from pre-season. Bournemouth simply have not invested well enough in top defenders and Howe has been forced to play players out of position, because of the injuries.

Far from having a settled side, it is a ramshackle display all too often. While Ramsdale has done well to get the number one spot in goal, he is gong to make some mistakes. More importantly he needs players in front if him that are putting their foot in. Getting caught over the top was happening for the defence in pre-season and it has continued, as we saw for Leicester's first goal.There are no quick fixes here. Bournemouth need to concentrate on getting a back four or three that are capable of working well enough to get some clean sheets and there has to be a more settled back line - so many changes are not helping. Still, I don't see why Jack Simpson is on the bench when others are making basic mistakes. I admit some of this is down to injuries, but it is important that AFCB's luck changes soon. AFCB still play with Adam Smith and Steve Cook who were part of the team that won promotion in 2014-15. They should be under pressure to be keeping their places but I don't see that. Leicester bought defender Caglar Söyüncü in the summer from FC Freiburg who was fantastic against Bournemouth last Saturday - so quality players are out there, but AFCB's defence has only really been improved by Natahan Aké in my opinion since 2015.

Tuesday, 3 September 2019

Eddie Howe said during his pre-match interview for the Leicester City game that Asmir Begovic's situation could change and indeed he has been loaned out to Azerbaijan team Qarabag until January 2020. Begovic has been out of favour since Artur Boruc replaced him near the end of last season, before Mark Travers went on goal for the last two league matches of the 2018/19 season.

Asmir Begovic gets his loan move.

It always looked like Eddie Howe would move Asmir on quickly, but it has been a drawn out affair that sees Begovic go to a team that is still along way from his home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it will enable him to play in the Europa League.

It was no doubt important that Howe found a club for Asmir as it didn't look like he would be involved this season at AFCB, and he didn't need to be training when AFCB have a good selection of other keepers. It has been fairly quick Asmir's fall from grace, but in the Premier League it is important to play with the best keeper you can get. It perhaps says more about Artur Boruc holding on to his place despite seeing Asmir bought to rival his place. The young keepers of Aaron Ramsdale and Mark Travers now look set to be the standard for AFCB keepers in the next few years.

Hopefully, Asmir does well and builds his confidence up again and perhaps will be bought in 2020 by Qarabag or another club. It clears the way for players like Ramsdale to concentrate on their job and start making a bit of their own history at AFCB.In other news, Nnamdi Offoborh has a season transfer move to Wycombe Wanderers and Tyler Cordner is on loan to Ebbsfleet until January. The Daily Express also reports that Celtic made a bid for Jordan Ibe but could not agree wages.

Monday, 2 September 2019

It was disappointing to see Bournemouth fade so quickly at Leicester, after they had been hit with Vardy's pace. They did get one goal back quickly with Callum Wilson's goal, but it just didn't give Bournemouth the impetus to drive on. Once Leicester had the lead again, there was nothing that AFCB did that took the game to Leicester.

AFCB's defenders couldn't cope with long ball over the top to Jamie Vardy.

Bournemouth are too often ready to drop their heads when things aren't going their way I feel. I am sure the players are trying, but there needs to be more fight about the team when they go behind. In previous seasons we have seen great fight backs and real steel about this team, but I am worried whether it is there this season.

The team could be setup to be more defensive. Howe likes to attack which I commend him for, but if the team is going to concede three or more goals every week, how can he expect his strikers to win many games for the team? The first thing that every manager has to get right though is his defence. You make yourself hard to beat and build from there. I feel the foundations are not in place at the moment at the back, and unless the team works at this part of its game more religiously there will be more days like we saw at Leicester City.

When the players look at the table in the next couple of weeks they might agree that their performances have not been up to scratch in August. Still, they have got four points and that is better than none. They now need to get a big result to kick-start their season. One win can make the table a lot better at this stage and Howe's main job is to make the team more solid. He has to do that while knowing their is a weakness at left-back and that three centre-backs hasn't worked well so far. A clean sheet looks a long way away, but Ramsdale has the confidence to get one and the defenders on front of him have to start believing they can help the team achieve that. Only then can I see AFCB picking up their season.

Sunday, 1 September 2019

Bournemouth were playing catch up from early on when Jamie Vardy lobbed Leicester ahead in the 11th minute after a bit of a mix-up between Mepham, Cook and Ramsdale who all made it easer for Vardy. Callum Wilson got off the mark just three minutes later with an incisive run and finish off the post before Tielemans tapped in another goal off the far post just before half-time. Leicester extended their lead when Vardy latched on to the ball from Telemans in the box to make it 3-1 after Bournemouth had several chances to clear.

Bournemouth had a reshuffle for this game with Charlie Daniels out for the weekend. Eddie Howe went with Chris Mepham as a centre-back and Aké moved to left-back, while Jack Stacey came into the squad.Match DescriptionHarry Wilson got a clip from Söyüncü and while Fraser took a shot at goal in the third minute, it didn't trouble Schmeichel. Adam Smith gave the ball away then but Leicester couldn't capitalise.Billing slips and takes out Maddison. King and now Smith makes a great run into the box and wins a corner.Leicester had a free kick on seven minutes from Maddison and it breaks for Barnes and Steve Cook heads away. Billing does well but can't find Fraser.Vardy is on the chase. Barnes and Aké gets the clearance in. Ndid makes a mistake and Fraser had a chance. Söyüncü a long ball, Vardy is in with Ramsdale off his line and Leicester take the lead on 12 minutes, chipping the keeper. Mepham lost Vardy and it was all to easy a long ball over the top. Cook and Mepham's starting positions were all wrong.Fraser drives a ball across goal and Schmeichel takes it. King turns into trouble. Barnes breaks and Mepham clears. Fraser on to Callum Wilson, great diagonal run across the box, and it's 1-1. Mepham, down the inside left and Wilson scores off the inside of the left post on 15 minutes.Albrighton shoots wide after a late challenge on Barnes. Billing drives towards goal but shoots over. Billing is booked for a foul on Albrighton. Albrighton's cross and Maddison jumps up and isn't far away, Smith put him off.Vardy turns and goes for a shot but it's right at Ramsdale. King puts it back to Lerma and he screws a shot wide. Ramsdale kicks the ball straight to Vardy, but he pounces on it and gets away with it. That was lucky, the ball came back to Ramsdale off of Vardy.Mepham has to head out for a corner after Vardy crossed. The shot eventually goes wide form Söyüncü. A good curling effort from the centre-back.Lerma has been booked for diving in on Tielemans. It's all a bit scrappy at the moment. A break is in for Leicester and a leg out from a Bournemouth defender just holds things up. Steve Cook I think, saved Bournemouth then.Lerma covers well and Fraser takes a poor challenge from Albrighton who is booked. Vardy is played in over the top and Steve Cook is beaten the cross finds Tielemans and he has slipped it in off the far post, 2-1 to Leicester, on 42 minutes. Shambles at the back.Josh King is down in the box. Three minutes of added time to go. Fraser puts a good cross in and Evens has to head behind. Callum Wilson doesn't get enough on the shot. It's 2-1 at half-time - work to do for AFCB.

Second halfMepham does some good covering work. Maddison makes his way forward from a free kick and where is Bournemouth's midfield? Luckily he shoots early and wide. Mepham again has to get a headed clearance in.Wilson's injured as he was held back. He took a nasty one on his ankle. Tielemans was very late. VAR is being reviewed - it has to be red. The referee wasn't even going to give a free kick. Unbelievable, no red card! What is the point of VAR? It was a terrible challenge.Great ball up to Callum from Lerma, but he is flagged late for offside. Ramsdale is caught at the back again by Vardy, just not quick enough and he was closed down.Callum Wilson is free in the middle, Adam Smith is racing outside and he checks back but his shot is blocked for a corner. Oh, Bournemouth should have tested Schmeichel then.Adam Smith gets back to stop Albrighton who shoots over. Adam Smith might have hurt his hamstring. Solanke and Ibe are getting ready to come on.Albrighton has been subbed for Demarai Gray to come on. Adam Smith is replaced by Ibe and Solanke comes on for Harry Wilson who has had a quiet game on 64 minutes.Bournemouth have gone three at the back. Barnes with a curling shot around Mepham and Ramsdale punches away well. Solanke has won a corner. Steve Cook has to dash back and Leicester have over hit it.Callum Wilson is down in the box and is carded for simulation. Söyüncü made contact but it was upper body. Choudhury comes on for Barnes on 71 minutes.Mepham can't get the ball away it has come through to Vardy and its 3-1 on 73 minutes. Bournemouth caught in their won box and it's a catastrophe. Tielemans just slotted it through to Vardy who couldn't miss.Lerma up to King but he can't get round Söyüncü. Surman is replacing Josh King on 79 minutes.Fraser comes forward and Solanke has a go from distance that Schmeichel pushes wide. 10 minutes to go. Lerma is caught by Gray and Maddison shoots, but hits Mapham's back leg and Ibe challenges Maddison and gets the benefit of the doubt. No VAR review for a penalty.Maddison is subbed on 85 minutes for Fuchs. Tielemans shoots from range and over the bar. Ibe loses the ball. Leicester are playing for time with seven additional minutes.Callum Wilson goes down a blind alley. Ibe can't get his cross in. Gray on the break, Cook blocks and Ramsdale blocks.SummaryA comfortable win for Leicester and a day to forget for the Cherries. The longer the game went on the worse it got, with Leicester far more positive in the final third. Bournemouth need to defend much better and Howe can't expect his team to have to score four to get something away from home. Bournemouth might have been unlucky with Tielemans' challenge on Callum Wilson but the team was generally out played and few of Bournemouth's players could say they had even a decent game. Worse still Adam Smith has a hamstring pull. AFCB drop to 15th in the table.

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Saturday, 31 August 2019

Bournemouth have netted four goals so far this season which is just 1.33 goals a game. That is a bit lower than what might have been expected from the first three games and it is clear that of the goals Bournemouth have got, we haven't seen anything from key players like Ryan Fraser or Callum Wilson yet.

Key players need to fire against Leicester City.

Goals will surely come from the two stars of last season at some point. But they have been spoken about so much that other teams are now well aware that these two players hold a lot of the threat that AFCB have, and stopping them goes a long way to stopping AFCB.

Bournemouth need to get a bit more creative with their attacks and try and get Josh King and Harry Wilson in good shooting positions as well as Ryan and Callum. The crosses have not been particularly accurate so far this season, and some of the shots have been rather hurried. It really throws a light on some of the player's poor shooting accuracy when you see how well Harry Wilson shoots in comparison.

Harry Wilson should not be leading the way, but he already is. It is down to some of the other players to step up if they are going to stretch teams like Leicester City. Bournemouth need to find more energy and precision in their forward play and while we know our players have got it within them, Eddie Howe needs them to start finding the net.I am not sure that Dominic Solanke is good enough to replace Callum or Josh King, but Howe will be forced to give Siolanke a start soon if our top duo can't start to look more of a threat up front. But coming up a defence like Leicester's is a chance for Bournemouth's best players to show they still can take the game to an in-form team and come out on top.

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